Skiing in… Spain

When one thinks about Spain, there is a certain type of image that pops up in one’s mind, an image of warmth, beaches, paella and bullfights, and that is certainly true for most of the country’s territory, but the Spain that we’ll be talking about today is a bit different than that well-deserved reputation.

We’re going to talk about the Pyrenees Mountains, which act as a natural border between France and Spain, and the fact that they hide somewhere around three dozen ski resorts.

Much like any other mountain range in other temperate or Mediterranean countries, the Pyrenees are a land of cold rugged beauty set apart from the norm, a land where there is some surprisingly great skiing to be had, if you were to know about it.

Heading to Spain to ski is something of a disorienting experience to say the least, starting with the fact that you’ll be flying into the country with your ski boots and then once you’re on the mountain, you realize that you’re in a very decent imitation of the Alps, only you’re not in Austria, you’re in Spain and if you were to travel a couple of hours south east, you’d eventually encounter a beach.

The mountainous part of Spain features several interesting areas to explore for instance the Aiguestortes I Estany De Sant Maurici National Park which is known for having a few icy lakes, and then there’s Aneto Peak, the highest in the Pyrenees at 11,168 feet or 3,404 metres.

There’s also the Val d’Aran which is a particular type of attraction, besides being the place where the Baqueira/Beret resort is, it is a 25 mile long stretch of snow which has the ski resort on one end and France on the other, with a bunch of old villages strewn here and there featuring a couple of 12th century churches.

Like we mentioned earlier, there are about three dozen mountain resorts in Spain, and the skiing is truly top notch, so next time you’re considering a trip to some foreign mountains, give Spain’s Pyrenees resorts some serious thought.